Pilibhit, Jul 20 (IANS): The Garha-Lalpur corridor in the Pilibhit Tiger Reserve (PTR) that connects two fragmented sections of the reserve's Mala forest range, will soon be revamped.
Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Naveen Khandelwal said: “This initiative is aimed at ensuring unrestricted movement and dispersal of wildlife, particularly the species of big cats, from one part of the reserve to another.”
The DFO will hold a meeting on July 27 with District Magistrate Praveen Kumar Laxkar and other revenue officials to finalise an action plan.
“The renovation of this corridor is expected to mitigate the straying of tigers and the man-animal conflict in the area quite considerably as they will be provided with a safe and uninterrupted passage through the corridor to migrate in the consolidated and extensive wild regions.
"Due to the fragmented core forest of the present time, the felines are bound to stray in agricultural fields to find their way to other forest regions,” the DFO explained.
The Mala forest range, currently divided by 350 to 400 acres of agricultural land and two villages, consists of two parts.
The first spans 500 sq.km and boasts a high density of tigers, while the other covers 200 sq.km with a comparatively lower presence of big cats.